Friday, February 5, 2016

A recent “groundbreaking” study
by Stay Metrics says that allowing truck drivers time away from work leads to
improved performance and retention.

In other news, the same company has released studies revealing
that water is wet, and fire is hot.

Seriously, it’s great that Stay Metrics is working to share
this important information with motor carriers, and hopefully it will lead to
better working conditions for all truck drivers.

However, the fact that large carriers need to be told this
sort of thing is the problem. Truck drivers aren’t different from workers from
any industry. We all expect a fair wage, good working conditions, a chance to
succeed, and good benefits like vacation.

No study should be required to tell you that if you treat an
employee right that he or she is more likely to work hard and want to stay with
your company.

These are not new ideas or concepts in any other industry. But
somehow when it comes to truck drivers, this type of information is
“groundbreaking.” I can’t wait for the findings from the fire study.

OOIDA Board member, Association Treasurer, and trucking
activist William G. Rode of Eagle, Idaho, was a family man, a trucker, a ranch
hand, a cowboy poet, a forest firefighter, and a bush pilot. He packed supplies
into the wilderness for the U.S. Forestry Service and built bridges as an Army combat
engineer in Germany.

"Wild Bill" Rode

Bill passed away Monday at the age of 82. It’s been a week
of sadness for his family and friends, and a week full of recollecting the
stories he had shared with us about his remarkable life.

Cowboyin’ being in the family, Bill got out of high school
and went to work for the U.S. Forestry Service packing mules, opening and
clearing the trails in the primitive areas of Idaho. This meant covering 1,800
miles a year on horseback and spending weeks on some pretty rough trails. Some
of his duties included supplying the lookout towers with enough provisions to
last two weeks at a time. Sometimes, he was a firefighter and whatever else
they needed him to be.

Bill and his young wife, Mary, lived in a primitive cabin in
the Salmon River wilderness area of what used to be called the Boise National
Forest. The closest road to where they lived on the river was 27 miles.
Everything that went in or out was by plane or horse.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

A few days ago, I was tooling through the grocery store and saw
a lady down the aisle from me. She was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Don’t like
trucks? Quit buying stuff. Problem solved!” in giant print across the back.

There was no way to miss it. And I had to giggle to myself
as I saw other people spying what it said. They read it, kind of looked around.
The wheels were turning. Were opinions changed? Who knows, but it got them
thinking. That’s for sure.

Come to find out it was a co-worker here at OOIDA, and
that’s a T-shirt now offered in our Cheap Freight store.

For those who don’t know, it was about this time last year –
just before the Mid-America Trucking Show – that OOIDA Executive VP Todd
Spencer strolled into the cafeteria and plopped down a couple of giant trailer
stickers with the same message.

Monday, February 1, 2016

NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick was not shy with his money
this past weekend as he reportedly spent nearly $4 million on several vehicles
at the Barrett-Jackson Collector-Car Auction in Arizona.

Hendrick paid $1.65 million for three Corvettes from 1955,
1956 and 1957 — all with VIN No. 001. He acquired the first production 2017
Acura NSX hybrid sports car for $1.2 million. He also dropped $525,000 on a
1969 Corvette roadster.

However, Hendrick’s best bargain may have been his $110,000 bid
to purchase Optimus Prime, the 1992 custom Peterbilt truck that was used in the
first “Transformers” movie.

Hendrick even earned a walk-in spot in the next
“Transformers” movie by being the winning bidder.

I receive several news tips every week. Some tips include
news items Land Line has already
looked into. Other story ideas we have to pass on for a variety of reasons. Few
tips are exclusive, and even fewer of those pan out to reveal anything of
substance.

North Bend resident and OOIDA Member
Joyce Hibma.

Advocacy journalism is chock-full of hits and misses … mostly
misses. But one hit is worth more than the dozens of misses that came before
it, and it takes only one citizen to get that ball rolling.

Two weeks ago, OOIDA President Jim Johnston forwarded Land Line an email from OOIDA Member Joyce Hibma of
North Bend, Wash. The city of North Bend was going to
hold a public hearing that would essentially put an end to any future truck
parking spaces, including stifling expansion of the lone truck stop in town. It
became my assignment to see what was up.

Similar amendments to municipal code pop up in towns across
the country periodically, to the dismay of many. However, this ban on truck
parking spaces was more significant. North Bend is the last stop on Interstate
90 before Snoqualmie Pass, a mountainous region that is shut down frequently
due to weather-related events (and sometimes crashes). When Snoqualmie Pass is
closed, truckers have no choice but to stop in North Bend. The nearest truck
stop from North Bend is approximately 45 minutes away.

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